Voyage of the SS Ragnarok
by Wild-Eyed Rose
Summary: So really, you have to wonder what would've happened if Sora, Riku, and Kairi managed to set sail on their raft. No, really. This attempts to answer those burning questions.


Title: Voyage of the S.S. Ragnarok  
  
Author: Rosé  
  
Notes: I don't own KH. Obviously not. But, the answer to the question: what if the three really DID manage to set sail on the raft?  
  
---  
  
Day after day, day after day,  
  
we stuck nor breath nor motion  
  
as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean  
  
Water, water everywhere and  
  
all the boards did shrink  
  
Water, water everywhere nor any drop to drink  
  
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner  
  
Riku made the mental note to bitch slap whoever it was that came up with the idea of the raft. He reflected upon the notion of taking whomever it was, kicking them so high and hard that they pierced the clouds, and not catching them as they fell. It was only after further reflection that he remembered that the raft idea was his own idea, an idea born in the fires of bad sea literature and watching thrown paopu fruit float in the seas. Those were the days: when he and Sora had paopu fruit fights under the coconut trees of his island, and Kairi watched, laughing or looking as if she wanted to go join up with Selphie's crew.  
  
He opted, under further consideration, to instead go ahead and beat up whomever it was that suggested that all they needed was a couple of bottles of water, a few fish, and coconuts. Oh, and paopu fruit. Who couldn't forget the paopu fruit. They all ended up picking the paopu fruit tree bare and smuggled a few pieces on board, just in case of 'emergencies.' Now, all they had to eat was paopu fruit. In fact, they had eaten so much paopu fruit that if the legends were true, the only way to separate their destinies would be if they sailed into fate's tapestry and took the effort to pull out their respective threads and separate them. Even so, he wouldn't be surprised if they discovered that their fates were braided together in a lovely French braid.  
  
The sun shone overhead, like it almost always did. It was a cheerful and relentless light overhead in the perfectly clear sky. In the Destiny Islands, the one thing that they usually lacked was weather. It was sunny. It was almost always sunny, and on the few days there wasn't sun the sky was filled with storm clouds, the rain pouring down in an endless torrent and the waves crashing as if stirred by some greater force at hand. He wished it was raining. But no, it was sunny, like it almost always was.  
  
Riku was on his back, lying on the raft, staring up at the sky. He picked the middle spot to have his skyward contemplation: less chance he'd be washed overboard, like Sora was on the first day they had sailed out. Sora was to his left, picking at yet another piece of paopu fruit as he sat, legs dangling over the edge. Tasteless as they were, Sora was still relentlessly chewing away at his piece. He looked over to where Riku was and gave him a goofy grin. One shoe was gone: it was lost when he was washed overboard. The other one he used as a dish to eat the paopu fruit on.  
  
To his right was Kairi. She was kneeling at the raft's edge, staring intently into the water. She crouched, in a hunter's lithe pose, with one hand resting on the raft and the other posed and ready a few inches above the water. Compared to himself and Sora, she was weathering the trip the best: Kairi had taken to the sea like only a fish could, trapping the fish, discovering edible kinds of seaweed that floated on the surface, and giving encouraging speeches whenever possible.  
  
Riku had lost his shoes when he tried chucking them at her head on the eighth day.  
  
"Hey Kairi!" Sora suddenly called, in the cheerful way that only he could do. This had many effects.   
  
Primary among them, Kairi was distracted and nearly lost her balance, nearly fell overboard. She caught herself, though, and looked down into the water. "Shit!" she cursed, surprising Riku: who knew that Kairi knew how to curse? "The fish swam away!" As if they needed any more fish. Fish were the commodity they had the most of, aside from paopu fruit and logs. She looked over at Sora, who was proceeding to crawl across the raft to her. Upon encountering the obstacle which was Riku's prone form, he hesitated, before crawling over him.  
  
"Want the rest of my pao--...."  
  
"Shut up, Sora." This was said by Riku and Kairi at once. Sora pouted, bottom lip extended so far that a bird could land on it and take a dump. Instead of speaking, though, he sat down where he was, next to Riku who still contemplated the sky. Sora stuck the rest of the paopu in his mouth and slowly chewed. He chewed loudly, and for a while, the only sounds were the small waves lapping against the raft, the trickling of the water, and Sora chewing.  
  
Each loud bite echoed, a slow grinding noise as teeth met fruit and tore away at the chunks. Slowly Sora sucked upon each piece of the fruit, grinding away at the tough outer skin that the paopu fruit was known for. He nibbled, he slurped, and he made such noise that finally, patience snapping, Riku couldn't stand any more.  
  
He sat up, quickly wrestled Sora's remaining shoe from him, and hit him over the head with it. Then there was silence. Only for a moment.  
  
"What was that for?!" Sora demanded, reaching for his shoe. Riku had anticipated this move, however, and held it out of reach. He moved as Sora did, keeping the large shoe out of the younger boy's reach. Sora crawled and Riku backed away, all but dancing with the shoe.  
  
"You were chewing!"  
  
"And what's wrong with that?"  
  
"I was thinking!" With that, Riku stood, using his superior height to his advantage. He looked down at Sora, who followed suit and stood as well, and smirked. "You were loud."  
  
Sora glared at Riku, looked up at him in the eye. "Let's fight! We'll settle this with swords!"  
  
"Bring it on!"  
  
"Will you two grow up?" Cutting across the brewing cockfight, Kairi glared. She had risen with the two boys, standing on the edge of the raft with all her diminutive powers. Her arms were crossed, and she glared, she glowered, she looked ready to scold the two in what would surely be a long and painful speech.  
  
The shoe caught her off-guard.  
  
Riku threw the shoe at Kairi, who caught it, but only barely. The extra balance coupled with the rushing waves and her already precarious position was enough to throw her balance off. Arms flailing, still clutching the shoe, she fell overboard.  
  
Riku chuckled. Sora seemed torn between laughing outright and rushing to her aid.  
  
Kairi slowly climbed back on board. Her murderous gaze was directed at Riku. Teeth grinding, hatred was in her eyes and some idle seaweed was in her hair. She seemed not to notice the seaweed, though.  
  
"Wanna kiss and make up, Kairi?"  
  
"Bite me, Riku."  
  
Sullen silence descended, the three caught in what would be an uncomfortable situation had it not already happened on just about every day beyond the first. Kairi glared at Riku who smirked in return: Sora, literally and metaphorically in the middle, was already fishing out another paopu fruit from their supplies. The seconds passed by slowly.  
  
It was the brunette who opted to break it. Sora opened his mouth and with less sense than innocence, said, "Wanna play a game?"  
  
This was the statement that would have led to a fight and, like usual, someone being thrown overboard with the other two frantically trying to sail away. Riku was opening his mouth to speak, to shoot him down, as was Kairi, when Sora was graced with a reply.  
  
A loud cry came from overhead: the three all instantly looked up to see a white speck dancing in the air. It seemed to be a piece of cloud, so long, so broad, as it wheeled in the sky. But it wasn't a cloud: a bird flew overhead.  
  
The three children were on their feet if they weren't already, ignoring the waves and the possible danger of being thrown overboard again. They looked up, astonished and thankful and, above all else, surprised.  
  
"A bird!" shouted Sora gleefully, raising his arms to the sky.  
  
"Land must be nearby!" Riku turned to Sora and shook him, trying to get the other's attention. "The bird must have come from an island of some kind! If we follow him...!"  
  
Kairi gave an inarticulate scream and chucked the shoe she still held at the bird that flew overhead. Horrified silence descended, the disbelieving questioning of Kairi's actions lost as the three stared at the shoe as it flew. In a wide and highly improbable arc, it went higher, wider, faster. Breaking the laws of physics and chance, they watched as it hit the bird. Both bird and shoe fell to the raft, a sullen sickingly loud smack as it landed. Dead.  
  
"...so much for that idea," Riku uttered. Sora stared in horror. Kairi looked down at the bird, her face unreadable.  
  
Silence. The bird was motionless.  
  
"I...I think it was an albatross," Sora ventured finally.  
  
Silence descended again. Uncomfortable, the three looked at each other, and down at the bird corpse which rested on the raft with them, feathers being brushed by the wind.  
  
Finally, Kairi said, "Let's eat?" 


End file.
